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04-20-12 | 12:36 PM

#12

Patrick Bateman

Junior Member

Joined: Apr 2012

Posts: 8

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Quote:

Originally Posted by z90

That is an interesting thought. I wonder if there are and belt drive bents? I have to say, dealing with the chain on my bent is one of the major reasons I eventually switched back to road bikes.

Yes, I think the weight of the chain is particularly inefficient in a hilly area like here. (Portland.) I haven't seen any belt drive 'bents for sale; perhaps part of the challenge is that it's nice to have lots of gears on a bent, since the variance between high and low speed is so great. IE, you need an ultra tall gear on the flats to take advantage of the aerodynamics, but you need an ultra short gear on the hills to combat the additional weight of the large frame and seat.

Speaking of large frame and seat, here's some pics of my bikes progress.

Here's a schematic of the stringbike. The picture in the background is the bike that I used as my 'template.' It's called 'the magic bike' and was built by homebuilder Larry Lem from recumbent.com

Here's a detail of the front end. It's basically a carbon copy. I've found that MBB FWD bikes tend to be very critical about the angles on the front end, so I don't want to risk getting this part wrong.

If you look at the first pic, you'll notice I made a few changes to Lem's bike:

#1 - I changed the seat angle to 30 degrees
#2 - I shortened the wheelbase by about 10cm
#3 - My bike will be fiberglass, not steel. This gives me the luxury of integrating the seat into the bike, and fairing the tail.

Here's Lem's bike

Here's the Vendetta. My front end is basically a clone.

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